(DELTARUNE) Banjo on My Knee
by Nazareth Rose
Summary: (Please do not read if you haven't played the game.) Our heroes have just escaped their prison in the Card Castle. The Spades King has shown himself to be the most pernicious adversary they've met so far, and now his son's life hangs in the balance. It's just like in the game, but this time, Susie decides to be a little more… in-character than as planned.


It was a palace of dreams, a house of cards. The thunder and rain were making the castle roof slip and slide and slumber, each lightning crack showing the shadows, the criminals of the night, for briefness before disappearing. And one of those criminals was Lancer, his four foot seven inch form dangling, dangling over the edge, his father's iron-fist grip on his jacket.

Suzie always hated criminals. She hated the criminal shadows as well the criminal causing one of them.

"What will it be?" asked the Spades King, his hideous belly-mouth jiggling in delight, emitting a high-pitched "Whaaaatwillitbeeee…."

"Prostrate yourselves," continued the Spades King, tugging at the jacket "Or I'll PROSTRATE him for you!" The Spades King laughed, a "Hohoho" turned inside out and upside down, a "HohohawHAHAHAHAHAHAhaha!"

The Spades King's hand slipped slightly, on purpose, with purpose, and the cortisol found new purpose in Lancer's veins. But he didn't mind. He couldn't mind, or show any type of fear, if he wanted to impress Susie, right? He had to be tough. Proud. _Strong. Warrior, iron-strong._ Just like her. He wanted to be just like her. That's all.

So he closed his eyes, swinging between Heaven and Earth. Just like Absalom, caught in the tree so he swung beneath heaven and Earth. When Absalom's father had heard about it, he'd shouted, "Absalom, Absalom!". If only Lancer's father would shout out something like that. Or an "I'm proud", just one "I'm proud" during graduation. That would be enough. Because blood is thicker-than-water, right?

But Lancer couldn't hope that. That would be overzealous.

Suzie was horrified as she noticed the others kneeling. Prostrating. _Submitting. Unforgivable. W_ ithout hesitation, Suzie swung her axe at guilty air, her cheeks reddening with her fire. Reddened even more than the times the kids in school had shoved her head to the gym shower floor.

"And what makes you think I'll move a muscle?!" she roared. "I know you. You're nothing more than a pansied coward. You don't have the guts to drop him. Like I said, I know you. You order people around just for fun. I know your type."

Lancer opened, widened his eyes, shook his head no, over and over. As he moved his leg to kick, moved his arm to summon an attack, his father moved his limbs to immobilize both of them. The blood drained from Lancer's face. But all he could see was Suzie's terrified one.

He really was pathetic.

There was a hush of silence as the world held its breath, then exhaled, then took off its load. The Spade King's hand rid itself of its load, too.

Lancer, the Humdinger of Spades, the Mean Ol' Master, who never missed a jump with his dirt bike, who always timed his dives at exactly the right moment, gave in to gravity.

The Spades King whipped around towards all three of the children, their eyes wide, staring at his empty palms.

Ralsei practically had to hold Suzie back from the edge of the castle wall as the tiny four-foot-seven shadow, the criminal, went down, down, down, down….

The Spades King was nonexistent now, at least in Suzie's mind. Her feet tromped down the castle stairs. She didn't realize she'd gotten at least five decent-sized splinters.

But on the fifth step down, she heard a more sickening crunch from outside, impossible for her size six feet, and for the first and final time, Suzie screamed. A banshee-howl, a wolf's cry, an eagle, swooping down, down, down, down. But that only stopped her footsteps for a moment. Only a moment.

The scream didn't finish until she was outside. A chill rushed down her mind, prying her eyes shut, washing off her axe. When she dared to come out again, there were three bushes. The first two bushes had been installed by Lancer and his father just those two weeks ago.

But the third one was small, irregular, jumbled-up and scrambled in places any socially comfortable person wouldn't want to look at, a mess of red, white, and blue.

Lancer.

She sprinted there, ignoring Ralsei's rain-choked warning, those drumming, buzzing, telltale words that once someone's HP went down so much, it couldn't be brought back up by anyone. It was like asking to rescue someone buried alive when they were already embedded in the Earth's core.

But that was nothing. Nothing to stop Suzie's

legs from moving, nothing to stop her from shouting out, "C'mon, man, say something, say something!" for the whole kingdom to hear once she was there.

There was silence, and then there was the chorus behind her, Kris and Ralsei joining in, murmuring, "Say something, come on, come on say something, say something…" It was like a song, playing over and over again, running down its muddy path in the grog-swamp of their minds.

Finally, there was something, but that wasn't until the other two bushes were watered with the thicker-than-water from Lancer instead of the clear water they received on a daily basis from the Spades King.

The smallest of groans, cut off as soon as he caught sight of Suzie's axe. Then a word trailing down his mouth, dribbling on his chin. "Shoes…"

The most pathetic gleam of confusion went across Ralsei's face, but it was quickly replaced by his every breath tugging and gasping and heaving, every word a half a scream. "Your, extra, shoes, are, in, my, pack, but, _why,_ would, you, want, to-"

Lancer coughed again, harder, and the wall just in front of him discolored. "Suze…" he repeated, then slumped back down, exhausted. Ready to rest now.

The tugging, the gasping, the heaving, all of it in Ralsei's breath, stopped. Susie had to gently lift Ralsei out of the way, but Kris seemed to double back on his own.

The thicker-than-water spread to the courtyard floor.

Suzie noticed her hands were shaking before looking up again. She wanted, with a craving that even all the bombs of her dedication couldn't stop, to pick Lancer up. But she knew, from deep in her bone- instincts, that he'd only be hurt more.

She'd heard what Ralsei had warned her about in terms of HP.

God, she was so soft.

And that was alright.

That was alright now. "I'm here, Lance. Right here, okay? And your dad's not coming back here any time soon." Her teeth grated on "time", rubbed together until they squeaked. "I swear it, I swear I'm gonna-"

She felt something pat her pants, barely touch it. A stained hand. She knew.

Lancer tried to sing, but it wasn't quite a song. It was a half-choked prayer, somewhat speech and somewhat hanging. The thicker-than-water was mixing now with the rain, spreading even farther, almost too far for Suzie to look, the bubbles making it too much…

"Oh, Suze-Anna, now, don't you cry for me, for-"

He fell to gravity again, gravity forever, gravity he never wanted to leave.

Suzie looked at her dusty hands, shook, noticed again they were shaking, that she was shaking. She looked back to where two strange, strange boys named Ralsei and Kris were, the both of them staring at the two bushes...


End file.
